Thought for Food

Hey remember when M. and I used to do cocktail events? We’re doing ‘em again! If you’ll be in town over Memorial Day weekend, come join us on Saturday afternoon for kelp cocktails (kelp courtesy of our friend Bren) and snacks by Chef Dave of Louro and the supper club Um Segredo.

And if you can’t join us this time but want to stay in the loop on future events or private consulting/classes/events, please use our contact form here. Cheers!

evoenyc:

We’re delighted to announce that on Saturday, May 25th, we’re holding an Evoe cocktail event — the first in more than two years. Inspired by a trip to Brendan Smith’s innovative oyster and kelp farm, the Thimble Island Oyster Company, we’re featuring kelp-infused spirits in a variety of cocktails.

We’re calling it (what else?) “Drink Like A Fish.”

Now, we know what you’re thinking….

Kelp cocktails? Really…?

Really!

Kelp and seaweed-infused spirits add appealing umami-rich flavors to both sweet and savory cocktails . They’re especially fantastic with aquavit and carrot juice or mescal and sherry — all of which you’ll get to try.

Since we like to offer a bit of education with our aperitifs, we’ll discuss the principles of incorporating unusual ingredients in your cocktail repertoire, so that next time you find some interesting new liqueur on your travels you’ll be able to mix it fearlessly with the spirits you already have in your home bar.

As for Brendan, he’s a rock star of the local and sustainable seafood movement — if don’t believe us, check out The Wall Street Journal and Lucky Peach — and he’ll tell us about his unique “3D” approach to ocean farming and why we should all be eating more kelp, in cocktails and beyond.

Finally, Chef Dave Santos of the acclaimed West Village restaurant Louro will create an inspired menu of kelp and seaweed snacks.

The details:

• You must RSVP and space is limited, so please email us at info@evoenyc.com if you’d like to join us.
• Price: $45. Includes a variety of kelp and seaweed cocktails by Mayur and snacks by Chef Dave.
• Location: Louro, 142 West 10th Street, West Village.
• Date & time: Saturday, May 25th, 2-4 pm (note: this is Memorial Day weekend).
  

Please note! We’re offering cocktail consulting services for both the professional and private client; please see our new website for more information.

Broad­way: 1000 Steps

Mary Miss is an artist whose work seeks new means of engag­ing the pub­lic in the world around us. In the course of her career she has expanded from tem­po­rary site instal­la­tions to larger scale trans­for­ma­tions of infra­struc­ture. She’s cur­rently work­ing on an ambi­tious project for New York City called “Broad­way: 1000 Steps,” that will explain New York’s new green ini­tia­tives — many of them part of PlaNYC –at mul­ti­ple sites along Broad­way. The goal is to make New York’s for­ward progress even more tan­gi­ble to citizens.

Mary Miss explains:

I thought if artists, over a period of time, could incre­men­tally work on this cor­ri­dor, peo­ple could begin to see the city not just as the home of Wall Street, not just a 19th or 20th cen­tury place, but really a city that’s look­ing to the future. I also thought it would really be an inter­est­ing way to get the ini­tia­tives of the city’s PlaNYC down at the street level so that peo­ple could have access and begin to under­stand issues that were being talked about between city depart­ments. How do you get the sup­port of citizens?

As I understand it, we will soon be seeing installations along Broadway that highlight the unseen or unnoticed efforts toward sustainability that are right under our feet or above our heads — the green roofs, the LEED buildings, composting, urban farming (or potential places for urban farming). Keep your eyes peeled….

Kelp is the new kale, yo

A couple weekends ago, Bren had us out to the Thimble Island Oyster Co. farm in the Long Island Sound. When we visited in September, the focus was on oysters. This time it was on his spring crop: kelp and seaweed.

Bren’s idea in planting kelp and seaweed is to make the most of his ocean acreage. Why just grow oysters on the sea bed when he can grow nutrient-rich edible greens in the water column above them? He calls it “3D farming” and the fact that it’s local and hyper-sustainable  — unlike land farming, ocean farms don’t require water or fertilizer, and kelp, like oysters, actively cleans the water its in — has made it very intriguing to journalists and policymakers alike. (Remember the recent WSJ article about him? and the current Lucky Peach has an article about him, too, though I’ve yet to get my hands on it.)

However … it’s all well and good to talk about seaweed. People need to eat it too. Clearly, we eat dried seaweed of many varieties. It’s the fresh stuff — which only Bren can provide to the NYC market — that is so foreign to our palates.

The challenge Bren has set for himself is no small thing. He needs to create demand for the stuff. And that’s what this tour was all about.

In addition to me and M., we had Chef Dave of Louro and a food writer and truffle dealer named Helen (who happened to go to my college and oh! we have so much in common, it was a real treat to meet her).

We tasted kelp straight from the sea. We tasted a kelp butter that a friend of Bren’s is making. And (perhaps most exciting) we tasted a cocktail that M. concocted with kelp-infused spirit, aquavit, verjus, and carrot juice.

It was good!

Actually good.

The infused spirit is delightfully briny and chock-full of umami — M. says he gets hints of black tea. Ummmmm ok, supertaster. I’ll take your word for it.

Point is, kelp brings something new to the flavor table/kitchen/cocktail bar, and it’s really thrilling to be a part of it.

For example, at Dave’s next Monday night supper club meal at Louro, he’s starting with a seaweed salad inspired by his trip to the Thimble Islands. And we can all readily imagine the new Scandinavian chefs being all over this ingredient (several are already experimenting with Bren’s kelp as I write this).

M. is thinking about developing an umami shrub, starring kelp and other unctuous flavors — which I think would be a hella baller cocktail ingredient.

And I’m sure he’ll feature kelp spirits in special cocktails on Sunday nights at Dram.

There are kelp noodles in the works.

And we should definitely make kelp chips!

So basically, watch this space.

We’re not stopping ‘til kelp is the new kale.

“Life Down on the Kelp Farm,” Wall Street Journal

Remember when we visited our friend Bren’s oyster and kelp farm in the Long Island Sound last September? Well we’ve been in cahoots ever since, trying to raise the profile of kelp and seaweed among American palates. It’s incredibly good for you, very sustainable (unlike greens from the land, it doesn’t need to be fertilized or watered), and actively cleans our waters.

… but leave it to me and M. to find the one way it wouldn’t be all that healthy: kelp cocktails.

M. infused neutral grain spirits with Bren’s kelp (pictured above, before it was strained). The result is delightfully briny with hints of black tea. It would make the most elegant dirty martini ever, and also pairs beautifully with smoky mezcal and citrus or savory flavors like aquavit, carrot juice, and verjus.

We’re taking our friend Chef Dave of Louro out to the farm this Sunday. Watch out — kelp’s taking over!

BRANFORD, Conn.—From the bobbing deck of his 24-foot boat in Long Island Sound, a quarter mile from shore, Bren Smith pulled out of the water a rope draped with ribbon-shaped blades of fresh sugar kelp.

He grabbed a few handfuls of the green, nearly translucent variety of seaweed for samples he planned to serve at lunch with a chef and organic farmer. Mr. Smith, who has cultivated shellfish such as oysters and clams for years, is now also a seaweed farmer. He said his fellow fishermen have been skeptical.

“They think I’m crazy,” he said. They ask, “‘Why would anyone eat seaweed? It’s stuff you find on the beach.’” […]

Mayur Subbarao of Bittermens Spirits, a liquor company in New Orleans, also has been experimenting with Mr. Smith’s kelp by infusing various boozy concoctions with it. “I haven’t had anybody say these things are weird,” Mr. Subbarao said. “If anything, I think people are intrigued.”

ryanpanos: “Amazing photos of vintage logging industry in the Redwood Forests of California via U of C” (via wnycradiolab)

We’ll look back on expansion of domestic natural gas extraction with similar horror. Except it won’t be in 150 years.

motherjones:

Climate Change Could Mean Seven Times As Many Katrinas.

Buckle up.

Fellow Catan nerds* who are also interested in sustainability, this post’s for you….

In 2011, the game’s manufacturers teamed up with the Worldwatch Institute to create an expansion pack called Catan: Oil Springs (you can download it for free here). The instructions, as published in Harper’s, are fascinating:

During your turn, you can convert one oil into two non-oil resources of your choosing. Alternatively, you may choose to forgo the usage of oil, sacrificing some growth for increased environmental security and the prestige of being a sustainability leader. The first player to have sequestered three oils gains the “Champion of the Environment” token.

For every five oils used, an environmental disaster results. Roll the two six-sided dice to determine where disaster strikes. If a seven is rolled, a natural disaster triggered by climate change floods the coasts. Settlements bordering a sea are removed from the board, and cities are reduced to settlements. Roads are not affected. A metropolis (because of its seawalls and other advanced design) is also not affected. If any other number is rolled, industrial pollution has struck. If the affected hex does not contain an oil spring, remove the production-number token from the hex. That hex no longer produces resources.

If the fifth number token is removed from one of the hexes, flooding has overwhelmed Catan and all inhabitants are forced to abandon the island, thus ending the game. While no player truly wins, the player who currently holds the Champion of the Environment token is recognized by the international community for his/her efforts to mitigate climate change and is granted the most attractive land on a neighboring island to resettle.

* Raise your hand if it upset you that in the Parks & Rec episode where the guys play Catan for Ben’s bachelor party (lol) they were clearly playing the standard version of the game, which has a maximum of 4 players! They should have been using an expansion pack! I mean obviously!

…aaaaand told ya I’m a nerd.

thesciencellama:

Neil deGrasse Tyson lays down some cold hard truth.
Every second our Sun releases energy equivalent to about 1 Billion (1,000,000,000) nuclear bombs, and we are digging in the sand.

Let’s face it, there’s a lot of shit we do that would raise the ol’ alien eyebrow.

(via ikenbot)

(via thegreg)

Obama becomes first president to walk down a bike lane on Inauguration Day. (via peterfeld)

Was thinking this very thing as we watched the parade. Thanks, ARRA!